Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an autonomous braking system and an autonomous braking method. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to an autonomous braking system and an autonomous braking method that can detect multiple objects beforehand, and avoid vehicle collision while lane changing.
Description of Related Art
The reaction of a driver is not sufficient to handle an increasingly complicated driving environment, and thus driving safety is dramatically dependent on the reaction capability of each individual driver. A driving assistant system has been developed to increase the driving safety. Such driving assistant system provides an automatic braking capability for a vehicle, which is independent of the driver's controllability. For example, the driving assistant system provides sufficient actuation force to lower the speed of the vehicle or even to fully stop the vehicle for avoiding the collisions between the vehicles.
The aforementioned driving assistant system generally uses a sensor to detect a distance between the vehicles, and uses a processing unit to obtain the distance signal and the relative speed between the vehicles, and then transfers the results to a controlling unit to control the speed of the vehicle or to brake the vehicle to keep a distance between the vehicle and another object in front the vehicle or to completely stop the vehicle. In another example, the vehicle may be automatically swerved when the distance between the vehicle and the object or the speed of the vehicle reaching a critical value.
However, the aforementioned driving assistant system usually suffers functionality failure in extreme situations. For example, when the speed difference between the vehicles is too large or the distance difference between the vehicles is too short, due to the mechanism or the disposing position of the sensor, the response of the sensor cannot be activated instantaneously, and thus autonomous braking or lowering speed of the vehicle cannot be performed instantaneously, thus leading to vehicle collisions.
The aforementioned issues usually happen in changing lanes. If the driver of the vehicle changes lane, the sensor needs to be rebooted to reset the driving assistant system after the steering wheel is repositioned. When the vehicle speed is too large (larger than 30 kph), the response of the sensor is not fast enough, and the braking assistance functionality of the vehicle cannot work properly to keep enough distance difference for the vehicle, thus leading to vehicle collisions. In other words, the aforementioned driving assistant system can only be used in a front direction of the vehicle and at a low vehicle speed.
Therefore, there is need for a manufacturer to develop a driving assistant system that can be applied in various situations.